The Wall Street Journal published on 21 January 2024 an article titled "How the U.S. Is Derailing China's Influence in Africa" by Michael M. Phillips.
The United States is challenging Beijing's commercial dominance in oil-rich Angola, Africa's largest recipient of infrastructure loans. Angola rejected a Chinese bid to rehabilitate and operate freight service along the Lobito Corridor and granted it to a U.S.-backed European consortium. The U.S. Export Import Bank is lending Angola $900 million to buy American equipment for solar projects and a $363 million loan guarantee for an American company to sell steel bridges. The U.S. is also looking to sell miliary equipment to Angola.
Comment: While this is a major success for U.S. commercial policy, it only concerns Angola and not the other 53 countries in Africa as the title of the article implies. The U.S. still has a long way to go if it wants to challenge China commercially throughout Africa.
